UK National Committee for Antarctic Research - Glaciology

SCAR Working Group on Glaciology - UK representation

SCAR (Scientific Committee on
Antarctic Research) has a number of scientific working groups, one of which is the SCAR Working Group on Glaciology.
Since 1996, the UK representative on this Working Group has been Eric Wolff from the British Antarctic Survey. SCAR gives a listing of other members of the
Working Group. The Working Group meets
approximately every two years. The 1996 meeting coincided with the SCAR meeting (SCAR
XXIV) in
Cambridge in August 1996. The recommendations from SCAR XXIV can be found in SCAR
Bulletin volume 125 (April 1997). The Working Group met in September 1998 at the Sixth
International
Symposium on Antarctic
Glaciology (SISAG) in Lanzhou, China. I presented a UK report to the Glaciology
Working Group. The next meeting of the WG will be at SCAR XXVI in Japan in 2000.

UK input to SCAR is organised by the UK National Committee for Antarctic Research under
the auspices of the Royal Society. The UK representative on the SCAR WG Glaciology sits on
this committee. The committee meets annually (currently in the springtime). The 1998 meeting
was on 12th May, but this year there is an extra meeting in December 1998. The UK committee
believes that SCAR is in need of institutional reform, and the UK representative to SCAR
therefore put a position paper forward to SCAR in Chile (July 1998), proposing a review of
SCAR organisation.

This page will act as a conduit for passing on SCAR recommendations
that are relevant to
glaciology, as a means of soliciting input from the UK glaciology
community, and as a brief
directory of UK researchers and their activities in Antarctic glaciology.

Items of interest to glaciologists generally come from the Glaciology Working Group, but
also from the SCAR Global Change
Programme.

Recommendations from SCAR XXV

The main meeting of SCAR XXV in 1998 made three recommendations of particular relevance
to glaciologists:

SCAR XXV-11: Concerning air-snow-ice transfer processes; this recommendation
recommends that National Committees support (i) collection of surface snow data through
ITASE, (ii) studies of air-snow interchange and air firn-ice exchange to support deep drilling
initiatives.

SCAR XXV-12: Concerning ITASE and expedition datasets; this
recommendation approves
ITASE as a joint SCAR-IGBP PAGES
programme, and recommends that National Committees
support the associated data compilation.

SCAR XXV-13: Concerning the BEDMAP proposal; approves the
BEDMAP proposal for
compilation of ice thickness and bedrock data as a joint initiative of SCAR and European Science
Foundation, and urges national operators to contribute data.

Other recommendations on data centres and directories are also relevant. Full texts of these
recommendations will appear in SCAR Bulletin in due course.

SCAR Working Group on Glaciology - discussions at 1998 meeting

The 1998 meeting took place in conjunction with the Sixth International Symposium on
Antarctic Glaciology at Lanzhou, China, in September 1998. A full report should appear in
SCAR Bulletin in due course.

The meeting was well attended (approx 18 nations represented). It discussed national
reports and a number of international programmes, so that all countries were aware of their
status. It was agreed that the next WG meeting will be in Japan in 2000 with XXVI SCAR. The
meeting elected Qin Dahe of China as WG Chairman. A number of formal recommendations
were made, most of them updates of those from the 1996 meeting. I will include the details here
when I have formal minutes.

SCAR Working Group on Glaciology - discussions at 1996 meeting

The 1996 meeting took place at XXIV SCAR in Cambridge. A full report can be read
in SCAR Bulletin No. 126, pp. 8-10.

The meeting discussed a number of international programmes, so that all countries were
aware of their status. There was discussion of the Vostok drilling, and how far it was safe to drill
towards the lake. It was decided to hold the Sixth International Symposium on Antarctic
Glaciology (SISAG) in Lanzhou, China, in September 1998. Five formal recommendations
were made:

If you want me to raise issues in the SCAR WG (generally issues with an international
dimension), or in the UK National Committee, please contact me. This would be especially
important just before the meetings of these bodies.

This is a listing of groups and lead investigators with current activities or an expressed interest
in Antarctic glaciology. If you wish to add your name, or amend your listing, please let me know
(e.wolff@bas.ac.uk). Where known, I have made links
to web pages for the group or researcher.

University of East Anglia, School of Environmental Sciences

Bill Sturges and Stuart Penkett, based in the trace gas lab,
Antarctic glaciological interest is in the trace gas composition of past atmospheres from studies
of firn air and air bubbles in ice, with particular emphasis on last 100 years. Bill Sturges is
co-ordinator of EU FIRETRACC project, with BAS (Robert Mulvaney) and groups from France,
Germany and Switzerland.

University of Reading, Environmental Systems Science Centre

University of Wales at Aberystwyth, Centre for Glaciology

Julian Dowdeswell,
Director of Centre until June 1998, research interests include: (a) the dynamics of large ice
masses and their
response to climate change; (b) the application of airborne and satellite geophysical techniques
in glaciology, and (c) processes and patterns of sedimentation in glacier-influenced marine
environments.

Mike Hambrey,
Director of Centre. Antarctic interest is in the Cenozoic glacial history of Antarctica from
offshore drilling and
onshore stratigraphic investigations; the Antarctic work has been undertaken with the Ocean
Drilling Program, and the national programmes of New Zealand, Germany, Australia and the
USA.

Martin Siegert,
Antarctic interest is the study of Antarctic sub-glacial lakes from geophysical data, including
airborne radio echo sounding, and numerical modelling information; funded to correlate the
Antarctic ice core palaeoenvironmental records from Vostok and Dome C using radio-echo
layering.